Those of you who thought that the release of ‘Ponyo’ 12th February this year would be your next instalment of these well known beautiful anime features, are in for a visual treat! Ghibili’s 1993 film ‘Umi ga Kikoeru’ (translating as ‘Ocean Waves’) is now available for the first time ever in the UK! It was released on DVD on 25th January, so any die-hards out there probably already have their copies, but for those just getting the word, it’s definitely worth the purchase.
With pretty boy actors like Robert Pattinson making vampires en vogue with the MTV tweens once more and True Blood bringing in the more x-rated adult audience, it seems that vampires are oh so fashionable with movie goers and TV fans yet again. However, you need to sift through a hell of a lot of doe-eyed vampire lovers, talcum-powdered faces and cheesy fang-induced nonsense to get to the good stuff; unless you’re a stereotypical emo kid or a lonely housewife, Twilight just ain’t going to cut it.
Nominations are finally out! Thanks to the comprehensive listing at www.theguardian.co.uk I’m happy to announce the nominees. I’m glad to see a huge increase in the number of films considered for awards this year, as well as the broadening of most categories. My predictions are highlighted in each category, somewhere between the obvious winners and the hopefuls that I feel really deserve the recognition. Place your bets now!
Up In The Air deserves all the critical acclaim it has received, after winning 34 various film awards and being nominated for a further 51. Jason Reitman has co-written and directed an easily accessible film that is inventive, fresh and witty. It is a new form for Hollywood, in which the characters’ lives can contain drama and tragedy, at the same time as comedy and love – without being labelled as a ‘weepy’ or soppy romcom.
(500) Days of Summer is supposed to be a quirky take on a love story. In fact, it actually declares itself as a non-love story, however, it is a love story; director Marc Webb was clearly just trying to be “clever”, which is typical of this kind of film.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Tom – a soppy, wet Topshop-esque indie boy who falls for Summer (played by Zooey Deschanel). Summer doesn’t believe in love but Tom does and they embark upon an irritating relationship whereby Tom gets treated like an emotional doormat by Summer, who embodies everything you don’t want in a girlfriend – emotionally high maintenance, distant and rude.
This film was about as “indie schmindie” as it gets – it perpetuates all the typical “indie” stereotypes you’d expect from the characters to the soundtrack. As soon as Summer mutters “I like the Smiths…” You basically know what you’re in for.
There’s the constant feeling that perhaps Webb should have developed the characters a little more – afterall, a film like this is quite character-drive, or should be. However, you never feel like there’s more to Tom or Summer – just the fact that one is wet beyond annoying and the other is emotionally bereft. The film constantly tries to make you feel for Tom but the guy is just so one-dimensional and idiotic that you can’t feel anything more than annoyance. Even when you get the feeling you’re about to perhaps delve a little deeper into the characters, Webb slaps some trendy tunes over shots of laughter, doe eyes then cuts back to Tom dissecting his feelings and relationship with Summer.
Moving away from the characters, the actual story is full of stereotypes. The role reversal of the love sick boy instead of the love sick girl, just doesn’t cut it. The 500 days of Tom’s “relationship” with Summer doesn’t actually span 500 days. It seems the relationship runs it’s course quite early and the rest of the days are spent looking longingly into the middle distance, getting advice from his more with it younger sister (the only bearable character in the film), interjected with the typical comedy relief type buddies and trying to get over this very short lived relationship.
By the time you find out what has become of Summer and the conclusions they both reach, you feel exhausted and highly annoyed. And speaking of those conclusions, they’re completely empty and devoid of anything philosophical you may be looking for about romance and love underneath this commercial, stylishly shot film.
Denzel Washington stars in this post-apocalyptic come religious epic, the latest in a relatively recent stream of films that take the same theme as their topic. Fortunately each film manages to stand out from the crowd and this is no exception, similarly to Will Smith’s I am Legend role Washington is the walk-alone action figure. (more…)
Ahhh more viral madness for us to feast our eyes upon! This time we know it’s a viral, but the idea is that we don’t know who it is. Guesses are all pointing towards everyone’s fav dirty girl, Christina, Lady Gaga and even the animal rights organisation PETA!
The first of the 3 viarals was released 3 months ago, then one 3 weeks ago, and one 5 days ago. They are released with codes for each title. The codes are some kind of clue to who is making these videos. Here is one guys example as to why it’s Christina…
